Today, Tomorrow, the Rest of Our Lives
by AnthroQueen
Summary: First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes... the perfect wedding night? Well, not exactly.


**Hello friends! How are we on this fine Sunday? Probably better than me- I'm heading off to work until 2:15 in the morning! Yay! (That was such major sarcasm, if you couldn't tell). Anyway, with all the angst and the drama and the uncertainty that Spencer and Toby have been going through lately, I wanted to write some mindless fluff to kind of... brighten the mood? I can only take so much angst, you know? So that's when this story was born. And it wasn't supposed to be this long- it got away from me. Don't they always?**

**A few weeks ago, I was reading this article on Huffington Post about what wedding nights really look like and it was so funny. At the end of the article, it linked me to a Reddit thread called, "Honestly, married people, how was your wedding night?" And although some were really, really sweet and super nice, most of them were just freaking hilarious. So then I got to thinking... if Spoby had an unconventional wedding night, what would that look like? And thus, this story was born. I combined many of the unfortunate happenings of other people and created one very interesting night for these fools. So I hope you enjoy and I hope you don't think it's too ridiculous, but if you do, that's cool. No big deal. I'm rambling again, aren't I? Okay. Have a magical day and enjoy, maybe? :D**

* * *

Today, Tomorrow, The Rest of Our Lives

Their apartment is all the way at the end of the hallway and yet somehow, perhaps it's an echo or the acoustics of the empty walls' vibrations, they can hear even the tiniest sound from the stairwell as if they were next door. Arguments ladled with expletives, suitcases bumping down the creaky stairs, children shrieking as they head off to school; it isn't luxury and it certainly isn't ever quiet, but it's home. Toby fiddles nervously with a necktie in the mirror by the front door, his fingers fumbling clumsily over the silky material because truthfully, he'd never had anyone show him the proper way to do this and he definitely isn't used to dressing so nicely since he doesn't have a job that requires it. Just as he finally gets it into place, he hears a bang from the staircase, muttered swearing and frantic shuffling and smiles widely. Spencer's home.

Her key turns in the lock moments later and she enters the apartment looking like a jumbled, frustrated mess. Papers and manila folders and pens are pouring out of her briefcase and there's a hole in her stockings as she roughly slams the door behind her and steps painfully out of her high heels. She heaps everything in her arms onto an armchair in the living room, yanks off her blazer and begins to reorganize the contents of her briefcase in true Spencer fashion. All the while, she's muttering incoherently about things Toby can't quite make out, but somehow, it makes him grin all the same. She finishes, flops backwards onto the couch, and lets out a groan. Toby takes this opportunity to finally greet her.

"Bad day, Spence?"

"We need to move," is her tired reply. "And I swear to god if I don't get out of this dead end job before the end of this sentence, I'm going to jump off a building."

He sits beside her, patiently waiting for an explanation. "Don't do that. You'd be harder to live with if you were a pancake."

She glances at him, not amused, but he chuckles anyway. She clarifies, "Howard took my Tuesday/Thursdays and stuck me with back to back lectures Monday/Wednesday/Friday from 8 am to 5 pm. He thinks he can do that because he has "seniority" and I'm just a PhD candidate who's here this semester and then I'm moving on to bigger and better things. Then I had an idiot in Biopsych plagiarize half his term paper and I obviously had to turn him in and we had this argument about it because he got all pissy with me. I swear, if there was a way for me to graduate without teaching these ridiculous seminars… I think I went to the wrong school. And then to top it all off, I get home, can't find a freaking parking spot near our building, ripped my pantyhose on the car door and then tripped coming up the stairs because fifty complaints later, Jansen _still_ hasn't fixed that step and my stuff goes _everywhere_. I hate everything right now."

He toys with the ends of her hair. "Even me?"

"No," She says as though it's the most ridiculous thing she's ever heard. "Never you."

"I'm sorry you had a bad day," Toby tells her. "But look, you're inspiring these students, you know. Maybe some of them will want to go on and get their PhDs just like you and then they'll be right where you are now in a few years and they'll have you to thank."

"I doubt it. They honestly don't even listen to me," Spencer says. "Last week, I caught two guys in the back watching porn."

His eyes widen. "In the middle of class?"

"Yep," Spencer confirms. "It's alright. I made them a deal- if they could somehow tie it into our group discussion, they could keep watching."

"And did they?"

"Well, they made a valiant effort," Spencer says and they both laugh. She adds, "I really need a drink- of the alcoholic variety."

"I bet you do," He says. "Good thing we're going out. Reservation's in thirty minutes."

"That's why you look so nice?" Spencer wonders, adjusting his tie. "Oh my god, I completely forgot it was date night. Do you hate me?"

"Well, if you don't hate me, then I guess I can't hate you, right?" He teases but her face doesn't change. "Come on, Spence, it's not that big of a deal. You had a lot on your mind today. It's okay."

She bites her lip and asks, "Is it okay if we just stay in? Can we rain check this date?"

"I don't know if you've noticed, but we kind of live together," Toby says. "We can go out whenever we want."

"You're the best," She kisses him quickly and scrambles up. "I'll call the restaurant. Then I'm going to change."

"Me too," Toby agrees. "If we aren't going anywhere, I'm getting out of this tie."

"Wait," Spencer hesitates. "What are we going to eat for dinner, now? And are they going to charge us for canceling this close to the reservation?"

"I don't know," Toby shrugs, heading to the kitchen. "But you're forgetting the most important question."

She looks up, alarmed. "What?"

He holds up two bottles of wine by their necks. "Pinot or Riesling?"

A formal night out turns into wine in their pajamas with a game of Scrabble on their unmade bed. It's definitely a much more casual setting than he had planned, but truthfully he doesn't mind. The stress has left Spencer's disposition and she's smiling much more than she had when she'd gotten home, which is most likely because of the bottle of wine she'd helped kill moments earlier. She thinks hard a moment and finally places down 'UNIVERSITY,' and is entirely pleased with herself. "The V is on the double letter, and the Y is on the double word, which means I get forty points!"

"Not bad, not bad," Toby says, scratching down her score as she sips at her glass once more. "It's no seventy-six, but…"

"I still don't know how you did that," Spencer shakes her head. "You're a wizard."

"Right, because if I'm better than you at something, it can't be me," Toby teases. "It must be sorcery."

She laughs. "At least you know the truth."

They're quiet a moment as Toby prepares his next move. He moves some tiles around before asking, "Do you remember the night before you left for college?"

She smirks. "Which time?"

He eyes her. "The first time."

"Oh, the night I spent bawling my eyes out because I was scared?" Spencer nods. "Yeah, I'm still trying to block that out."

"I still don't know what you were so terrified of," Toby says, finally placing down the word 'MUSICIAN'. "You were so excited and so ready to get out of Rosewood and then I came over and you just lost it."

"I didn't want to leave you behind," Spencer admits. "You hated Rosewood as much as I did, if not more. And then I was afraid you and I wouldn't make it and that combined with all the emotions of leaving just got the best of me."

"Whoa, why wouldn't we have made it?" He wonders. "Just out of curiosity. Clearly that is no longer an issue almost seven years later."

"Come on, we were teenagers trying to do long distance," Spencer points out. "The odds were against us from the start."

"Well, good thing we adjusted them, then," He says, watching as she plays 'MOTIF'. "Remember when we told your parents I was moving out there with you and they thought I was enrolling too?"

"Yes," Spencer groans in embarrassment. "My parents are the worst. They spent twenty-five minutes trying to convince me that you were more ambitious than I ever suspected and then I had to shut them down because, A- you already had a job, and B- there's no way I'd ever date someone in the same field as me, because look what it did to them."

"And right you were," Toby compliments, strategically placing his next few tiles. "Thanks for the F, by the way."

Spencer stares hard at the game board before asking, "What is that supposed to be?"

"Um, forever?" Toby answers as if she's clueless. "I think you've had enough wine. You've forgotten how to read."

"I can read perfectly fine," Spencer swats at his hand as he reaches for her glass. "That's not what it says."

"Yes, it does," Toby insists. "Forever, as in extended period of time. Forever, as in how long you're taking to write down my score. Forever, as in how long I've been better than you at Scrabble. Forever, as in how long we've been together and how long we will be. Forever, as in-"

"Toby, if you give me one more definition, I swear to god," Spencer stops him. "Forever may be what you intended to put down, but you've only got the F and the 'rever'. You're missing the O."

Toby glances at the game board and his eyes widen. "Where did it go?"

"What are you talking about?" Spencer exclaims. "It was never there!"

"Of course it was! I wouldn't play a word with a missing tile!" He shoots back. "Oh my god, you moved it, didn't you? You are so ridiculous. You can't handle the fact that I'm beating you again-"

"I didn't move your tile," Spencer laughs. "You must've misplaced it."

"Well, then help me look for it, or you're going to have a missing O," Toby says. "And that's going to hurt your OCD."

"Ugh, that's true. You had to lose it, didn't you?"

She begins to search beneath the sheets and blankets, behind the pillows and underneath the game's box. Toby adds, "This is going to take forever."

"It better not," Spencer warns. "I would like to be able to sleep tonight. It was a long day, Toby."

"Yeah, you told me," He chuckles. "I don't see it."

"Well, look harder!" Spencer scrambles to the floor. "Maybe it fell under the bed."

"Wouldn't we have heard it? We don't have carpeting."

A moment of silence passes and then she asks, "Are we drunk? Seriously, are we just super drunk right now and it's right in front of us but we don't even see it?"

"No," Toby laughs. "I've seen drunk Spencer. This is not drunk Spencer, trust me."

"This is a conversation for another time, but how many categories do you have of me?" Spencer asks, deep beneath their bed at this point. "No caffeine Spencer, low blood sugar Spencer, drunk Spencer… Ow!"

"Are you okay?"

"I hit my head on the bed frame. This is ridiculous."

Toby suddenly exclaims, "Found it!"

"Jesus, thank you," Spencer sighs, climbing back onto the bed before him. "Now we can move on."

He places it in its square and reaches into the bag nonchalantly as she reaches for the score sheet. Then she stops in her tracks. "That's not the tile."

"Oh my god, now what?" Toby eyes her. "It says 'forever' now; you can give me my points and we can move on."

But she's completely frozen, her eyes widen, her mouth agape. "No, no, that's… That's… That's not the O tile."

Toby grins, the tile she's seeking between his fingers instead of upon the board in front of them. "No, this is."

And in place of the O in the middle of their forever, there's a sparkling, shining engagement ring. She stares at it, at the beginning of the rest of their lives, and Toby's heart is pounding so loudly he's sure she can probably hear it from the other side of the bed. He inhales a deep breath and says, "Spencer…"

"Oh my god," She gasps. "That's why we were going out tonight. We were going to dinner and you were going to propose. Oh god, I ruined it!"

"No, no, I wasn't going to do it at dinner," Toby assures her. "We were going to go to the park after, and there were lights and music and… It doesn't matter. You didn't ruin anything. I always have a backup plan."

She chuckles even though there are tears of mirth in her eyes. "You do?"

"Of course," He nods. "I learned from the best."

She grins. "Good answer."

Crawling across the bed, she weaves her fingers into the locks of his hair and kisses him over and over. When he gets a second to breathe, he asks, "So is that a yes?"

"Well, technically, you didn't really ask me anything," Spencer smiles coyly. "For all I know, that could be a promise ring or like a friendship ring or even a breakup ring."

"A breakup ring?" Toby deadpans. "Yes, that's it. Spence, it's over. Here's this shiny new ring to remember me by."

She giggles uncontrollably, falling back against the mattress as tears roll down her cheeks. "Yes. Yes a million times. Yes in every language. Yes."

Toby plays aloof. "Yes what?"

At this, she sits straight up again and says, "Wait, if you want me to answer, you have to ask properly."

"You just answered!"

"I take it back," Spencer shakes her head. "Rewind and pause. That didn't happen."

"Okay, I think you _have_ had too much to drink."

"Ask me, Toby!"

"Spencer Hastings, you are the absolute love of my life," Toby begins. "Every moment with you is a complete blessing and I am the luckiest guy in the world to have been able to find someone like you at such a young age. You're my best friend, my confidante, and my soul mate. I love you more and more each day and I still can't fathom how that's even possible. You have made me happier than I ever thought I could be and never really thought I deserved and if you'll let me, I'd like to spend the rest of my life trying to do the same for you. It's been a crazy road so far and I don't know where life is going to take us, but I know that I want no part in it unless you're by my side."

The tears are back in her eyes and she can barely say, "I love you too, Toby."

"Will you marry me?" He asks simply and she nods, but he's barely finished. "Will you be my wife? Will you join me at the altar in holy matrimony? Will you vow our eternity in front of a priest? Will you do me the honor of-"

"Okay, you're taking forever," Spencer cuts him off with a laugh. "Yes, I will marry you. Yes, yes, yes!"

He snatches the ring from the game board, slides it on her finger, and brings her in for a kiss. This, of course, is not the way he'd planned on proposing to her, but it had turned out undeniably perfect all the same. They're kissing in earnest and just as they're getting into it, lowering their intertwined bodies onto the mattress, the game board goes careening to the floor and the Scrabble tiles skitter across the hardwood. Toby frowns and Spencer groans, "Why do we _always_ play on the bed? We never finish a game."

"Literally every game of Scrabble we play ends in sex," Toby agrees. "I'm beginning to think it's your way to get out of losing."

She grins. "Damn, you're on to me."

"Is it going to bother your OCD if we don't pick it up now?"

"Pick what up now?" Spencer asks and draws him under.

Less than a minute later, he forgets all about the game they were playing. They make love beneath the scintillating stars and the moonlight catches her engagement ring and neither of them has ever been happier.

* * *

Turns out, there's more to wedding planning than just renting a tuxedo and tasting different types of cake. More than once, Spencer and Toby consider calling the whole thing off and just running off to Vegas to marry _Friends_-style- although, preferably without all the alcohol and writing on their faces. Spencer makes the mistake, once, of mentioning eloping in front of her mother and she never hears the end of it. Veronica puts her daughter on a 24-hour watch from that moment on, calling her three times a day to ask, "Did you elope? Tell me you didn't elope. Please don't elope, Spencer, we're putting a lot of hard work into this." When the stress becomes too much, Spencer puts Hanna in charge of the rest of the wedding planning and it's like the girl was born for the job. Although, some of her choices are a bit questionable; Toby had laughed to the point of tears one night as he read through their registry, wondering, "A Panini press? A rice cooker? Dutch oven? Do we really need _any_ of that?" The answer? Probably not.

The bachelor and bachelorette parties are thrown and the rehearsal dinner goes mostly okay; the food is late and the venue kicks them out early, but there isn't any family drama for once and Emily gives a speech about the love between her two best friends and there isn't a dry eye in the house. At long last, when the day is done, Toby and Spencer separate, parting ways with nervous excitement between them, as the next time they'll lay eyes upon each other will be at the altar. Her serene dreams of love and happiness are interrupted at an ungodly hour, one before the sun has even risen to greet the new day, by Aria, shrieking that she can't find the veil, and Hanna, telling her loudly to shut the fuck up, she has it. Still, this does nothing but make Spencer grin; there had been a time, not too long ago, when losing Toby and losing her three best friends had been a very real possibility, if not a certainty. And yet here they are now, emotionally scarred but physically unscathed, on the morning of her wedding to the single greatest love of her life, arguing about mundane things as if they truly are as normal as they claim to be. Spencer crawls out of bed, swings the door open and stops them in the tracks and all four of them take a moment to consider just how far they've come.

Hair and makeup take longer than expected; Spencer doesn't know whether to be impressed that her stylists are so dedicated and precise or worried that they think she needs this much work. The girls usher her into an awaiting limo when she's finished because it's pushing noon and the ceremony's at two. The venue's beautifully decorated; rose petals are scattered down the aisle, the chairs are pristine white and adorned with tulle, and an altar has been set up beneath a picturesque archway overlooking the water. Her bridesmaids dress and fiddle with their hair and makeup and titter on about every last detail, but when Spencer steps out in her gorgeously form-fitting wedding gown, the crystals and the beading glittering in the sunlight, everyone is silent. And when everyone has to gone to line up for the procession and it's just Spencer with her mother and sister and the latter two are unable to hold back tears, that's when all the stress and the nerves and the anxiety come back. And she knows that this is when most brides get the urge to run, but she doesn't; at least, not to run away. If she's going to run anywhere, it'll be to Toby, because he's the only one who can set her world right again, as he's done so many times before.

Even Peter has tears in his eyes when he offers her his arm at the end of the aisle. Spencer's never seen her father cry before and she can feel the familiar sting at the back of her eyes, but she forces them away. Not now; not today. She can hear the tinkling of the ivories at the far end of the aisle; Pachelbel's Canon in D is softly coaxing her down the aisle and she takes a deep breath and her father's arm and begins to make her way towards the rest of her life. They round the corner and everyone is standing, smiling, a few are crying, but Spencer doesn't see them. Her eyes are on Toby, her wonderful Toby, who's standing there waiting for her and looking at her like she's the sun upon his darkest days, and with every step towards him, her nerves relax a bit more, and when she reaches him and clasps her hands in his, she's as calm as she's ever been. Their vows are sealed, the rings are exchanged, and before long, they're pronounced husband and wife and when they kiss, there's something different about it; something deeper, something more meaningful. They grin at each other when they're through and people cheer and Spencer realizes, it's _forever_. It's eternity. It's today, tomorrow, and the rest of their lives.

The scenic banquet hall opposite the aisle is where the reception is held and for the first time, their DJ announces them as Mr. and Mrs. It gives Spencer chills in the best possible way; Toby takes her hand and interlocks their fingers and she grins at him, this wonderful man, her _husband_. They're led to the head table and everyone is seated; Caleb makes his speech and gets a bunch of laughs and since Spencer could never choose between her sister and her three best friends for the title of maid of honor, each one of them gets to make a tiny speech in her honor. The wait staff serves their cocktails, their appetizers, and their entrees and everything smells divine, but Toby and Spencer don't get a single bite; each time they think they're close to a forkful, someone taps their glass and they have to kiss or another relative calls them over to their table and they have to thank them for coming or the DJ calls them to the floor and they have to share their first dance as husband and wife. Before they know it, the food's cleared away and it's time to cut the cake and they do get to lovingly feed each other a piece so they're not _completely_ drinking champagne on empty stomachs. Caleb catches the garter and Hanna captures the bouquet, which of course means they're destined for a wedding of their very own. And before long, Toby and Spencer are heading to the hotel, everyone tossing streamers and confetti at them as they exit towards their limo, the back decorated sweetly with "Just Married!"

The honeymoon suite is on the fourth floor and overlooks the harbor. Toby swipes the plastic room key and pushes open the door, noting, "A florist threw up in here."

Spencer chuckles but nods. Every last inch of the room is covered in rose petals. "It literally looks like the opening of an SVU episode."

"No matter," Toby says, reaching down and scooping her up, bridal style. She squeals and grips him tightly. "Across the threshold we go."

"It is really beautiful if you ignore the hot mess of flowers, though," Spencer says as the door shuts behind them and Toby gently sets her down. "Let's explore a little."

There's a balcony, a flat screen and a Jacuzzi tub along with their California king bed, as well as a note from the front desk letting them know that, basically, their wish is the hotel's command. Toby turns to find Spencer quietly running her hands along the smooth fabric of the bed and when their eyes meet he feels his heart skip a beat. "I didn't really get a moment to tell you today, but you look absolutely stunning. And when I saw you come down the aisle today…"

He's speechless, just as he had been in the moment, and she smiles slowly, crossing the room to loop her arms around his neck. "Thank you. And I know… That's how I felt too."

She kisses him languidly and when she pulls away, she begs, "Now please get me out of this dress before I suffocate and you are prematurely widowed."

He laughs. "Turn around."

"And my hair, too, please. _Please_. It hurts so much."

Toby glances at the back of her dress, the seams, the buttons and hooks, and for a moment is at a loss for words. He has _no_ idea where to start. "Did they sew you into this?"

"No," She chuckles. "You just undo the buttons. Be careful of the fifth one- it's delicate. Hanna almost ripped it getting me into this this morning."

"And if I rip it now, you'll kill me, right?"

"If you rip it now, then _I'll_ be prematurely widowed."

"Got it."

The buttons are so small, Cinderella's mice would have issues unfastening them. He very, very carefully and somewhat painstakingly removes the first one from its cloth loop and somehow manages not to rip it off. Of course, beneath each button is a tiny metal hook and he has to force the fabric closer together to unhook them, each time momentarily cutting off Spencer's air supply. He shakes his head, his fingers fumbling once again over her clothing, and he wonders why they have to make women's clothing so damn complicated. Her dress is amazing and she looks utterly gorgeous in it, but right now it's just in the way, really, and he needs it gone. Halfway down, she shifts uncomfortably and asks if he's finished. He's not; truthfully, he lost some time balking at the redness of her skin that showed just how tight this dress really is and also losing his mind just a little at what she is wearing underneath.

"I could probably do it," Spencer says impatiently, trying to contort her body so she can reach behind her. "It's just, I can't see… And I don't think I can reach…"

"Stop moving. I'm almost done," Toby tells her, swatting at her hands. "I have like ten more."

"Ten?" She exclaims and whines, "Toby…"

"It would be fewer if you would stop squirming!"

"I have been in this dress for almost _eleven hours_ and it's digging into my back."

"I understand that. I'm doing what I can."

"I should've married someone who knows how to take off a dress."

"If you married someone who knows how to take off a dress, you'd have bigger problems than this."

She giggles and he stands, exercising his fingers and announcing, "Done. Finally, finally done."

"That took you forty-five minutes," Spencer tells him. "I timed you."

"Thanks for that."

"No, thank you," Spencer exhales and steps very, very carefully out of her dress. She gathers it in her arms and lays it very gently across the back of an armchair in the corner of the room. "You're a saint and I applaud you."

"You're welcome," Toby says absentmindedly, his eyes on her scantily clad figure adorned in wedding lingerie. "Anytime."

She grins at him and steps closer, almost seductively. "Before any of this comes off, this has to come down."

She points at her hairstyle and Toby smirks. "Let me guess- that's my job, too?"

"Well, if you're going to offer so nicely, who am I to deny you such a pleasure?" She jokes innocently and he chuckles.

"Alright, alright, sit down." Toby says, climbing on the bed behind her. "You're undoing all this hard work…"

"I love how it looks, honestly," Spencer tells him. "Just not how it feels."

He reaches in, finds a fleck of black and tugs. Out pops a U-shaped hunk of metal and Toby asks, "What is this?"

"It's a hairpin," Spencer laughs. "That's what's holding it all up. What, did you think it's floating by magic?"

"No," He shoots her a look. "It's just… These are _huge_. The ones you have all over our bathroom at home are so small in comparison."

"Those are bobby pins," Spencer waves it off. "Totally not even the same thing."

"Yeah, sure," Toby shakes his head. "Whatever you say."

He begins his search and rescue for the hairpins and tries to pull them out as gently as he can. Every now and then Spencer winces in pain, but she's less vocal about her hair than she was about the dress. It's just starting to hit him now how much preparation she'd gone through to make this day as perfect as possible. If it's taking him this long to take the hairstyle _down_, then he can't imagine how long it took to put it up. He glances at the clock on the bedside table, notes it's almost midnight, and realizes this little feat has taken him almost twenty minutes and he has no idea if he's almost done. He just keeps reaching into her mass of curls and coming back out a handful of hairpins.

Spencer winces and asks, "Hey, next time you take one of those out, would you mind _not_ yanking my hair out with it?"

"I think you can afford to lose some," Toby tells her and she laughs.

"Oh, you do?"

"Yup. So that next time you need a hairstyle like this, you won't need so many freaking pins," Toby replies, holding one out for her to see. "This is number 196. I'm keeping count. 196, Spence!"

She shrugs. "I have a lot of hair."

"Yeah, you don't say?"

She laughs, but it immediately turns into an expression of pain as he tugs out a few more locks of hair with his next few pins and apologizes profusely in return. It's never been easy for him to see her in pain, especially when he's the cause of it, whether directly or indirectly. 217 pins later, he's finally done and she sits back and rubs her scalp a little, the pain clearly evident in her eyes. His arms are immediately around her, repeating over and over, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I'm clumsier than I thought."

Spencer places a reassuring hand on his upper arm, shaking her head. "It's not your fault. They were in there really tight; half of them were embedded in my skull, I think."

He nods uneasily and asks, "So… What do you want to do now?"

She pushes him back against the headboard. "Guess."

Without another word, her lips are on his, almost animalistic, and he responds with a desire so great in almost knocks her out. All the anticipation and the excitement of the day are coming to a head in this very moment and it's almost too much for them to handle- almost. His hands are in her hair; he can barely get through the gel and the hairspray, but when he does, his fingers dexterously massage her scalp, taking the soreness away. She expertly unwraps his bow tie, tosses it aside, pushes back the lapels of his jacket and whimpers a bit when he pulls away to take it off. The shirt goes next, with Spencer showing Toby the proper way to handle tiny buttons; his shirt's off in mere minutes and he has to break contact just to laugh- she's even better at undressing than he is, apparently. She works the button on his pants and sooner or later, they join the rest of pieces of his tuxedo on the floor, forgotten.

Toby rolls them over and runs his finger across her silk-laden stomach before bunching up the material and pushing it up over her head. She flings it aside and clutches him to her, her fingers weaving through his baby soft hair as he begins to press soft kisses against her throat. He moves down, down, down, leaving hot, open-mouthed kisses along her collarbone, her chest, her breasts, her stomach and she does nothing but shudder in pleasure and hold onto him tightly, urging him to continue. His fingers dance along her waistline before hooking into the sides of her lacy underwear and tugging them down as well and that's when she gets her senses back. She reaches up and effortlessly discards his boxers and soon, they're lying naked together, intimately pressed against one another in a way that drives their senses wild. They're kissing again, sensually, hungrily, lustfully, and he catches her eye for just a moment for confirmation.

The moment she nods, there's a knock on the door.

They both freeze; her arms are still completely wrapped around him and he's hovering over her, balancing his weight on his forearms in an effort to not totally crush her. Toby whispers, "Who is that?"

Spencer shakes her head. "Maybe if we don't answer, they'll go away."

They're back to kissing almost instantly, but the knock returns and it's much more forceful this time. The moment is lost. Spencer urges, "Go answer it."

"You go answer it!" Toby shoots back. "I'm completely naked."

"And I'm not?" Spencer replies, rolling her eyes and scrambling out from underneath him. "It's probably just the manager asking if we need anything."

"We do," Toby calls back. "Privacy."

She smiles at him and pulls on one of the complimentary robes provided for them. Toby follows suit. Spencer unhooks the lock and yanks open the door… and her eyes widen. She stammers as she says, "M-Mr. Cavanaugh. Hi."

Toby's father nods in her direction. "Spencer."

Toby's at her side in a moment, twins in both dress and shock. "Dad… What are you doing here?"

"We're all staying at this hotel this evening," Daniel says. "You're settling in nicely, I presume?"

They both nod in unison. "Yeah, it's great. It's really nice."

"We've just gotten back from the reception hall," Daniel then says. "You two should come down and visit with the family. We're having drinks in the lobby."

"Dad, we visited with the family at the reception," Toby tells him. "That was kind of the point of the reception, wasn't it?"

"Toby, they traveled a long, long way to be here with us," Daniel frowns. "You know, you couldn't make it easy on us and have the wedding in Rosewood. They didn't have to come, you know, and they made every effort to be here for you."

Spencer opens her mouth to say something and then closes it just as quickly. Toby glances at their bare feet and says, "Let us get shoes."

Daniel nods and lets the door swing shut between them. Spencer stares at Toby until he looks back and then says, "I have been trying so hard lately to hold my tongue around that man because he's my father-in-law now and I want him to like me, but I _swear to God_ if he guilt trips you like that _one more time_-"

"Spence," He shakes his head. "It's fine. We'll have one drink and we'll come back. It's late; none of them are going to be much company anyway."

She purses her lips and follows. "Fine."

Daniel leads them into an intricate elevator and down to the lobby, where Toby's entire extended family is circled around a traveling drink stand and slumped over on couches and arm chairs. One of his aunts gets up when she sees them coming, kisses each of them with awful whiskey breath, and then offers them her chair, which they gladly take. Spencer clutches her robe and doesn't let go, suddenly aware that she is very naked underneath and she's in front of Toby's entire family, more or less. There isn't much for her to say; she doesn't know any of them very well and she knows it's because Toby puts an entire world of space in between their relationship and his family, probably for good reason. So, she mostly just observes and every now and then can hear the slight digs his father throws at him and it absolutely kills her inside. On the walk back to their suite, when they're finally freed a little after one a.m., all of the emotions of the day, the excitement, the nerves, the anxiety, the sentiment, and everything in between, hit Spencer all at once.

She walks over the threshold and promptly bursts into tears.

Toby stares at her, bewildered, and asks, "What's the matter?"

"I don't know," Spencer shakes her head. "I don't know why I'm crying. I can't stop."

"Spence," Toby rubs her back a little and kisses her temple. "Are you okay?"

"No," She insists. "Yes. Maybe. I don't know. Your family's so weird… And your dad's _so_ mean to you… And today was _so_ long… But it was the best day of my life."

"Yeah," Toby says, laughing the tiniest bit. "It was the best day of my life, too."

"Oh my god," Spencer suddenly exclaims, laughter hitting her, now. "I'm being so stupid."

"No, you're not," Toby grins. "It's okay."

"It's just…" She's laughing now, but tears are still streaming down her cheeks. "I'm so happy. I'm just so happy."

Toby laughs. "So am I."

"And I'm hungry," She then announces, sobering up a little. She wipes at her eyes and asks, "Did you manage to eat anything tonight?"

"I had that slice of cake," Toby says. "And a _lot_ of champagne."

"Yeah, me too," Spencer replies. "We should get some food."

"Yeah, how come we spent hours making this perfect wedding menu and didn't get to try any of it?" Toby wonders. "Let's get room service."

"Okay, you know what we should do?" Spencer suggests. "We should order room service and then try out the Jacuzzi tub while we're waiting for it to be delivered."

Toby grins. "I married a genius."

"Okay, you set up, I'll make the call," Spencer assigns and he nods, kissing her quickly before heading into the bedroom.

From there, Spencer loses herself in the room service menu and gets a little carried away ordering every single appetizer they offer. She ends up getting a deal out of it, though; the bellhop throws in a free dozen of chocolate strawberries when she mentions they're in the honeymoon suite. Score. He tells her it'll take roughly thirty minutes and she hangs up, her stomach already growling. When she steps into the bathroom, it's like she's stepping into a romance movie; somehow, Toby had found candles and had lit them and encircled the tub with them in an effort to make the evening all the more special. They shed their robes and settle into the warm bathwater, taking a moment to indulge in a few languid kisses before sitting back and letting the water soothe their tensions away.

Toby reaches for the switch for the jets and says, "Let's kick this up a notch."

And they do, but not quite in the way they might expect. The second the jets switch on, water comes spurting out in every direction. All eight of the little nozzles are pointing towards the ceiling and not one of them is below the water's surface. There's hot, bubbling water squirting across the room, all over the floor, at the countertops and mirror and in Spencer's eyes. She squeals in surprise and Toby reaches over to the wall to shut it off, but water is spraying in his face and he can't see a thing. They're drenched from head to toe and all of a sudden, something hot falls onto his leg and begins to burn badly. He manages to wipe enough of the water out of his eyes to see it's a candle and the flame's extinguished itself on his skin. The vibrations from the jets are propelling the candles into the water and before he can warn Spencer, molten wax drips onto her shoulder. She shrieks in pain and peels it off like a second skin and as the other candles drop like bombs into the water, they scramble out of the tub and skid on the wet floor. Finally, Toby's able to turn the jets off, but the damage is already done. Broken, melted candles are floating in a pool of fizzy misery and the bathroom looks as though it survived a hurricane.

Spencer's wrapping herself in a fluffy white towel and laughing hysterically. Toby glances at her and joins in. After all, they might as well laugh. This night is _so_ not going the way they had planned.

There's a knock on the door and Spencer says, "That's the food. I'll grab it if you want to attempt to clean this up?"

Toby nods his agreement. "I'll see what I can do."

Spencer slips her robe back on and is still towel drying her hair when she answers the door. A kind looking bellhop has a table full of food and rolls it into their bedroom, Spencer standing inconspicuously in front of the bathroom door so he won't accidentally notice the massacre inside. He's about to go when he seems to remember something. "I almost forgot. You have a delivery from a Miss Hanna Marin."

"Oh, okay, thank you," Spencer nods. "What is it?"

He hands her three very large plastic bags, full of Styrofoam food containers and shrugs. "I'm not sure. She didn't tell me. Have a pleasant evening."

"Wait," Spencer halts him. "How much do I owe you?"

"For the newlyweds, it's on the house," The bellhop nods. "Plus, I've never seen anyone order so much food in the twenty years I've been working here."

He departs, closing the door behind him, and Spencer pops the top on a few of the containers, frowning instantly the moment she realizes what it is. The meticulously thought out wedding menu they'd never gotten to try? Well, here it is, in six or seven boxes of leftovers. The last bag is full of what's left of their cake. Spencer stares at their leftovers and then at the room service she'd just ordered and sighs. "Thanks, Han."

Meanwhile, Toby had been somewhat successful in rectifying their enormous disaster. It had taken every towel the room had lent them, but the floor no longer resembles a slip and slide and the broken candles have been thoroughly extinguished and thrown away. He pulls on his robe and yanks open the door and a thousand different smells attack his senses at once. His stomach nearly breaks free of its confines as he realizes just how hungry he really is. Spencer's on the bed, engrossed in something she's found on TV, and munching on a mozzarella stick. When she notices he's arrived, she says, "I hope you're hungry, because I accidentally ordered the whole menu and then Hanna sent us all our leftovers. Also, cake. There's so much cake."

Toby laughs. "Nice. We've got enough food here to last us the whole honeymoon."

"I don't think they'd let us take it all on the plane."

Toby sits beside her and takes a bite of bacon-wrapped shrimp. "Oh my god. We can bribe them with these."

"Wait, wait," Spencer paws through a few of the boxes before spearing a piece of steak on a plastic fork. "Try this. It is the best thing I've ever tasted."

He chews a moment and nods his agreement. "Wow, we have really good taste in food."

"I know. Go us."

A gunshot onscreen catches their attention and Spencer exclaims, "Shit, it was the stepbrother? I _knew_ it!"

"What are we watching?" Toby wonders, digging into some mashed potatoes that had definitely been sent to them from the heavens.

"Law and Order: SVU," Spencer tells him. "It's a good one."

"They're all good," Toby corrects her. "If I were still a cop, I think I'd want to go into sex crimes. You know, make a difference. Reach out to people."

Spencer lays a hand on his knee. "Don't get any ideas."

They eat and eat until they simply cannot anymore. More and more episodes of SVU unfold on the screen and when the opening tag on another begins to play, Spencer says groggily, "I'm _so_ tired."

Toby glances at the bedside table and balks. "It's 3 a.m. When did it get so late?"

"If we stay up two more hours, I will officially have been up for twenty-four straight hours," Spencer deadpans. "Never done that before."

"We should sleep," Toby says, moving containers of food from the bed to the table. "Oh, but there's cake."

"Do I get to smash it in your face?" Spencer asks as Toby pops the top on the Styrofoam. "We didn't do that earlier."

"No, we were nice and clean about it," Toby reminds her, grabbing a fork and offering her a bite. "Remember?"

"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?" Spencer wonders, grabbing a handful and smearing it across his face. "That's better."

He stares at her, frosting sticking to his cheeks and his chin and cake in his nose, and says, "You had to do that, didn't you?"

"Come on," She says, licking her fingers. "It's a wedding tradition."

"Oh, it's a wedding tradition. Okay," Toby nods before dipping his fingers into the frosting and drawing them down her face, creating buttercream war paint on her forehead and cheeks. "See, I just didn't know."

"That's okay," Spencer nods, trailing some frosting down his neck. "That's why you have me to guide you."

"You know most people, if they were doing this, might use it as a kind of foreplay. Eating cake off of each other?" Toby says, covering her nose with frosting flowers. "We're just face painting."

"You know, you're right," Spencer sits back. "Hand me that towel."

He obliges and she uses it to wipe off the sticky, sugary substance from her face. She offers it to him afterwards and he does the same. After, she collapses against him and announces, "I'm too tired to have sex."

Toby nods his agreement, curling his arm around her. "Yeah. Me too."

They switch the lights off and snuggle beneath the covers in the bed that would put their own to shame. The colors of the TV bounce off the walls and more and more sexual predators are put to justice. After a particularly dodgy episode, Toby says, "Okay, I think we _have_ found an episode of SVU that sucks. Tell me you didn't like that one?"

But when he glances at Spencer, she's fallen asleep, the events of the day finally having caught up with her. He grins, turns off the television, and presses a kiss to her forehead. She still tastes like makeup and sugar and they've been together _forever_ now and he's done this a million times, but tonight feels different. Tonight _is_ different. Last night, the night previous, and every night before that one, they'd gone to bed as boyfriend and girlfriend, as equals in a relationship, as two separate people. But tonight… Tonight, they're unified by matrimony, they're equals in a marriage, they're official. Tonight, as he tucks the sheets more firmly around Spencer, he realizes she's his wife. And there had been a time, way back when, when he'd never thought anyone would ever even consider marrying him, let alone follow through with it, and he's momentarily taken aback by how far he's come, by how far she's brought him. He loves her with everything he is and everything he has and he has never felt anything stronger than this.

"Goodnight, my beautiful wife," Toby whispers, kissing her again. "I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings."

* * *

Spencer awakens to a blinding white light that assaults her eyes the moment she opens them. Sunlight is pouring through the slight crack in the curtains and when she sits up, searching for the source of the blinding, she realizes it's her ring, her beautiful wedding band and the sparkling diamond engagement ring, and then she's awake for good because _holy shit_, she got married yesterday. She spends a solid minute just staring at the glinting metal on her finger and begins to get choked up; she has to look away before she starts bawling like a baby. It's a little after ten thirty and she quickly does the math in her head, realizes they probably only got about six hours of sleep, and though her body begs for more, she knows she can't. They have brunch with their family and friends at eleven and if they have any hope of making it on time, they have to get moving now.

Glancing beside her, Spencer can't stop the warm smile from growing on her face as she notes Toby is still dead to the world. Again, her body longs to curl up beside him, fall asleep and forget the world, but she'll have to wait for the honeymoon to do that. She leans down and kisses his back, his shoulder, his neck, and feels him stir. "Toby."

He groans in response. She pushes some hair out of his eyes and says, "Wake up, husband. We have to go to brunch."

He doesn't open his eyes, but a small smile begins to form on his face. He murmurs, "You're my wife."

Her heart flutters at the words and she chuckles just a bit. "I am."

His baby blues search hers and he's full on grinning now. "I'm your husband."

"You are," She beams.

Toby sits too, taking her hands in his. "We got _married_, Spence."

"We did," She nods. "Wow, you're really observant this morning, aren't you?"

He attaches his lips to hers, kissing her once, twice, three times, and she sighs involuntarily. "How much time do we have before brunch?"

Spencer frowns. "Not enough."

Toby shakes his head. "We have really shitty timing."

She laughs. "Yeah, we do."

They freshen up the best they can and slip into some comfortable, casual clothing. Spencer yanks open the curtains and glances out upon the bright, beautiful day; not a cloud in the cerulean sky, birds chirping, it's almost as if it's out of a storybook. Yesterday had easily been the greatest day of her young life and last night… well. Last night hadn't exactly gone as planned. There are always high expectations for the wedding night; it's supposed to be the best sex of your life in the ritziest hotel room you've ever stayed in. Spencer laughs, now, when she realizes how she and her new husband spent it. He calls to her and they leave the suite, hand in hand, towards the elevator and once they're in the lobby, they meet in the banquet hall once more for a lovely brunch with their family and friends. They're greeted warmly, with hugs and kisses as if it had been days since they'd last seen them as opposed to the mere hours it had actually been. They sit down at a table amongst all their friends, who exchange knowing glances and dare each other to ask the question.

Hanna nominates herself, her eyebrows wiggling as she asks suggestively, "So? How was last night?"

Spencer glances at Toby, exchanges a silent conversation of their own, and smiles. "It was perfect."


End file.
